I’ve been hoping for some time that a serious person — maybe Charles Lane or William Saletan — would write a “yes, some of the birthers are crazy but if you look at the documents and read Section 8 of the Article 5 of the constitution carefully, you will find that there are legitimate issues blah blah blah” piece. A few months ago, with the interest in the “issue” dying down, I thought perhaps that train had sailed, but maybe there’s one last chance for it. The nut graf of the excerpt in Kay’s post:
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R) told KFYI he’s not entirely convinced President Obama was really born in the United States and suggested he could be knocked off the state’s presidential ballot.
Said Bennett: “I’m not a birther. I believe the president was born in Hawaii — or at least I hope he was. But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.”
Somebody at Slate or Kaplan might jump on this, right?
MrCheesyPuff
Arpaio Jr! Making his bones….
terraformer
Why people, particularly pundits and journalists, don’t see this nonsense as nothing other than pure racism is beyond me.
Oh wait, they’re paid not to see it. Never mind. Cokie’s Law and all that; no Democrat holding the Executive is ever legitimate.
rlrr
“Principled birtherism”
Oxymoron?
Villago Delenda Est
It would be nice to think that neither Lane nor Lord Salatan would dare touch this shit.
However, I’d not put money on them resisting the temptation to be contrary, yet again, to established fact, which would guarantee that they’d get a ton of hits, because after all, they are whores, and not the good kind of whores who give you an hour of fun sexytime, but the shitty kind of whores who implicitly promise to get your rocks off for you and then can’t understand when their unattractiveness turns you off. Let’s not make any mistake about this at all.
c u n d gulag
I want to see the birth certificates of ALL Republicans.
I need confirmation that they were born on this feckin’ planet.
JPL
When Romney’s father ran for office, the fact that he was born in Mexico never came up. Times change and not always for the better.
opium4themasses
“Principled Birtherism” will most likely consist of “Preach the Controversey”. Somehow, Republicans will find it in their hearts to blame Obama for the screeching of the shoeless bastards in their party that not even they can manage to control.
“If only Obama had released the long form sooner, we wouldn’t have these people talking about it still.”
jemerson48
On the other hand. Mittens father was born a Mexican citizen which, if the hands are evenly tossing the ball, should call into question his own natural born status…
redshirt
Just askin’!
Todd
Actually, this is Terri Schiavo all over again. A group of like minded nutcases spamming elected officials, who then don’t check the provenance of the identity or volume of the messages received before taking action based on the volume of communication.
kay
I want to know why the Secretary of State of Arizona accepts hundreds of documents every day, including birth records, yet he will not accept this document from this President, without more.
redshirt
@kay: Strict Constitutionalist, that’s why. Also, FREEDOM.
David Hunt
So what was the standards for the consideration of a candidate in the caucuses back in March? Are they different than the requirements to be on the ballot in November? If not, where were this guys principles then?
That last question was, of course, rhetorical. His principles are in the shallow grave out in the desert where he buried them after he killed them.
Villago Delenda Est
@kay:
I can answer that.
Because he’s a craven shithead.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@kay: Because he’s a wingnut hack, with no understanding of potential legal consequences of his hackitude? Does his refusal to acknowledge the authenticity of a domestic public document under seal threaten any judicial rulings relying on such self authentication pursuant to Arizona R. Evid. 902? In other words, pretty much every family law case decided, as well as quite a few homicides and nearly ever underage drinking conviction? What am I missing?
g
I like it where he says that he might – MIGHT – have to ask the same of all the other candidates, but he doesn’t want to.
No bias there.
Just what is it about Barack Obama that makes you doubt him, sir?
g
@kay: Exactly, Kay.
And why did the state accept Mr. Obama on the ballot in 2008? If it was good enough for them in 2008, there’s been no material change in Mr. Obama’s qualifications, so what’s changed except Teh Crazyee.
kay
@Villago Delenda Est:
Bullshit. He’s a state records official. Why are the other birth records he accepts every day valid? Millions of people could be. Black…um, LYING.
Do state records officials in Arizona determine on a case by case basis what records they accept? What about Arizona courts? Do they take out of state birth records?
Forum Transmitted Disease
The president is black. That’s the only issue. Nobody has ever given a shit where the president was born previous to Obama, and no one will give a shit again until the next black or Hispanic candidate comes along.
This is about nothing but skin color and only skin color. To even discuss the subject in any other terms is not only an utter waste of time, but lends legitimacy to the idea that these folks are proffering some sort of intellectual argument.
kay
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
It calls every adoption ever conducted in Arizona into question.
Who knows who these people are! There’s no telling what they’re up to!
Villago Delenda Est
@kay:
Kay, like I said.
The man is a craven shithead. Also a racist shithead.
Zandar
I personally believe that when the Village chooses this particular form of Gozer the Gozerian, it will take the shape of this as it rampages over the streets:
You know, completely ignoring the prior four years of racist birther bullshit.
50,000 quatloos on the one known as “Bobo”.
Tonal Crow
@Forum Transmitted Disease: This. It’s dog whistles all the way down.
Clime Acts
Are there legitimate issues? I don’t know. I don’t care.
I like the idea of a foreigner running the show here. Might inject some sanity.
Dave
I love the registered trademark next to his name. I know, it’s one of those autocorrect glitches for (R), but maybe all Republicans should trademark themselves. Corporate personhood on the march!
Dave
I love the registered trademark next to his name. I know, it’s one of those autocorrect glitches for (R), but maybe all Republicans should trademark themselves. Corporate personhood on the march!
eemom
Wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’ won’t cut it, DougJ. Yer gonna have to take the bull by the horns here. Get crankin on those e-mails.
Cuz God knows, teh stoopid spewing out of the emmessemm maw 24/7 right now ain’t enough. We must demand more.
Southern Beale
Birtherism isn’t going away because the mini-Breitbarts have a scooooop. A 1991 pamphlet written by a literary agency for internal use that said Obama was born in Kenya.
IMPEACH!
{ laughs }
Augie
Funny, I don’t remember this issue being brought up when John McCain was running for President. And one could make a very strong LEGAL argument (though not necessarily strong moral argument) that John McCain should not have been eligible to run for President since he was actually born in Panama. If I could only think of a reason why Barack Obama’s residence is being challenged and not John McCain’s…
Southern Beale
@kay:
Blackety black black black that’s why.
SATSQ
Villago Delenda Est
@Augie:
Actually, the issue WAS brought up in 2008, in reference to McCain.
By a Paultard.
Which tells you a lot about where birferism comes from.
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
@eemom:
I was thinking of emailing Saletan about it. Lane only replies to my emails when I change my email name to the name of his boss.
Villago Delenda Est
@kay:
All legitimate questions.
All it does is reinforce my original assertion, that the man is an intellectually dishonest, obviously politically and racially motivated sack of rancid shit.
kd bart
“Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.”
redshirt
I’m not sure why we’re all hatin’ on this one guy. This is the same state with the same Governor who berated Obama on the tarmac like some 4th grade teacher. Nuts in the nuthouse – not surprising!
Villago Delenda Est
@DougJ, Head of Infidelity:
ZOMG.
This means that Charles Lane, if he has a WoW account, has had his toons hijacked by Chinese gold spammers.
OK, this is subtle and nerdy, but right now there’s a scam going on involving World of Warcraft. Very official looking emails with Blizzard’s graphics are being sent to WoW account holders offering them free game time or invites to the latest expansion’s beta testing, that if you’re not tech savvy enough will fool you into surrendering your account information to the spammers.
Just spoofing Lane’s bosses’ email address is very much like this sort of thing, especially if Lane’s internet savvy is restricted to the best pr0n sites, and he doesn’t know how to mouse over a link to find out where it’s really going to, or know how to look at full email headers.
David Hunt
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
I respectfully disagree. The only issue is that the President is a Democrat. The overt racism is only the most prominent symptom of tribalism that infects the Republican Party. If Obama was not the son of an immigrant we’d be hearing about his gangsta past, regardless of how much they had to make up to get there. If Hillary Clinton was President, we’d be getting a replaying of the 90s greatest hits.
I’m not claiming that this guy isn’t a horrific racist. I’m saying that the racism is the easiest point of attack that breaches the walls into the right-wing id.
JWL
The GOP is a relentless, throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks, 24/7 attack animal.
kay
@Zandar:
In a decent country, a country without Candy Crowley and Marc Halperin and David Brooks in it, the state official would have to resign.
Incidentally. Andrew Sullivan takes birtherism seriously, because he’s a moron with an empty head who likes the word “transparency”.
Augie
@Villago Delenda Est
What I meant was, I don’t recall the Arizona Secretary of State bringing it up. That’s the difference.
redshirt
@David Hunt: I agree with this. No doubt racism is in play with much of the Wingnut attacks. But if it was Barry O’Sullivan – pink white guy – instead as President with a (D) behind his name, we’d still get all manner of outlandish, disrespectful BS from the Teabaggers.
Like the Gothar reference, Obama’s skin color has changed the form of their attacks, but they would have attacked with the same fervor regardless. Cuz they’re all nuts, in thrall to evil Rich folk.
Augie
@Villago Delenda Est:
What I meant was, I don’t recall the Arizona Secretary of State bringing it up. That’s the difference.
Comrade Dread
@Southern Beale: I wouldn’t joke about impeachment. I’m sure the House GOP caucus has spent the time they haven’t been working on jobs drafting articles so they can hit the ground running Jan. 21, if Obama wins and they take the Senate.
Amir Khalid
I asked this in the earlier thread but didn’t really get an answer: what can one state do if another state capriciously rejects its official documents, as Arizona is apparently threatening to do here with a Hawaiian birth certificate?
Villago Delenda Est
@Augie:
I understand.
Well, McCain had three things going for him:
1. From Arizona
2. White
3. Senate went out of its way to confirm that McCain was “natural born” and thus qualified to run for President.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
I don’t really know, but it seems to run smack dab into the “full faith and credit” clause of the US Constitution head on at freeway speeds.
Which I will allow our members of the bar commenters to further expound upon.
Nemesis
The Big Bosses over at GOP Ltd will not be pleased with this hooey. Granted, they love the birfer whispers. They love the birfer votes, but they do not want their beleagured candidate to face a “do you support/dont you support birfers” question from the more inquisitive members of the press corps. No. Mittbot needs to be able to win birfer votes without ever addressing that constituency directly. Otherwise, he faces losing moderates in droves.
opium4themasses
@Amir Khalid: Petition for a writ mandamus and then slap them upside the head with full faith and credit clause? IANAL
redshirt
@Amir Khalid: Sell Arizona back to Mexico?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Amir Khalid: It actually conflicts with the Rules of Evidence in Arizona, which provide (like those of most states as well as the federal rules) that a domestic public document under seal is self authenticating. In other words, a court must give “full faith and credit” to official public documents of other governmental departments, which includes states and the federal government.
Such records are legally presumed to be authentic, so in legal proceedings there is no need to have the records custodian testify that these are records kept in the ordinary course of business of that agency and that the document offered is a true and accurate copy of the original. In essence all the birther bullshit refuses to “accept” the self authentication of a single public record from Hawaii. I’d have to ponder what procedural vehicle would apply, some kind of mandamus I’d expect.
I hope that kinda sort answers your question.
Suffern ACE
@redshirt: I wish more emphasis would be placed on this as an immigration attack, because that’s what it is. The general “he’s not an american, he’s a metrosexual socialist elitist hippie” is one thing we are familiar with and that would have been lobbed at any white democrat. He’s secretly an angry black man who hates white people and by extension all america black panthers hurrah is the racial attack specifically. But this one is “Your father was foreign so it doesn’t matter, you’ll never be a real citizen” is quite specifically an attack on people with recent immigrant backgrounds in their family histories. The reason we can’t imagine this being lobbed at another president is because we haven’t had one like that recently. I agree we wouldn’t here about this if his name was Billy O’Sullivan, but we would hear about it if his name was Juan Herandez.
Sally Rakowski
@Southern Beale: Because a ‘fact-checking error’ by a literary agent who require authors to submit their own bios kept getting repeated and repeated, and somehow Obama didn’t know about it….. until 2007 when he decided to run for President.
{ laughs }
jwb
@kay: No, the only reason Sully takes it seriously is because he fucked up with Palin and this is his way of defending his own descent into conspiracy on that matter.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sally Rakowski:
It amazes me that you can type, what with all that drool mucking up the keyboard.
Sally Rakowski
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, Villago, Obama’s literary agent was the first birther.
Imagine that.
{ laughs }
Maybe you have a plausible explanation for how Obama never knew about it.
Brachiator
@Suffern ACE:
No, this seems more an attempt to wipe Obama out of history, to deny not just that he is president, but to deny the idea that he could even possibly be president. And there is also the weird deep denial that a black man could ever care about anyone other than other black people.
The anti-immigrant stuff is just icing on the racism cake.
Grandpa McCain, not born in the US, but no problem. Mittens descends from people who actually ran from the United States in order to establish their Mormon dream land. Again, no problem.
But there’s something different about Obama. What might that be?
But note also that Bobby Jindal’s parents were foreign born. As were Nikki Haley’s. And Haley in particular has come in for her share of bashing. But they became Republican, changed religions, and toe a fundamentalist and wingnut party line. They, so far, have said all the right things to keep the xenophobes at bay. An interesting irony.
Amir Khalid
@Sally Rakowski:
It was a simple mistake, the agent herself admitted it, and that’s all there is to it.
That horse is dead. Do yourself a favor and quit flogging it.
Mike E
I’m not a birther, but I play one on teevee…
g
@Sally Rakowski: “Because a ‘fact-checking error’ by a literary agent who require authors to submit their own bios kept getting repeated and repeated, and somehow Obama didn’t know about it….. until 2007 when he decided to run for President.”
The literary agent specifically said she did not get that information from Obama. Plus – until 2007? It was in a promotional pamphlet printed in 1991. I doubt Obama ever saw it, and it would have been superceded by other promotional materials printed in subsequent years – publishing houses don’t keep using the same promo materials year after year. You do know that publishers don’t provide print proofs of marketing materials to all their authors – or are you living in a fantasy world? Hell, most authors have a hard time controlling what the front covers of their books look like.
And – “2007 when he decided to run?” Are you suggesting that President Obama managed to plant a fake birth certificate, plant fake newspaper archives, erase any contradictory evidence of his life story worldwide – in short, engineer an identity hoax that manipulated government records within the space of a year?
If so, I’d say he’s pretty good! No wonder he deserves to be president!
Tony J
@Sally Rakowski:
I know, I know. Wanabee troll, etc, but..
Please continue pushing to make Birtherism a factor in November’s elections. As a Brit watching your politics unfold with a godlike eye I would – love – to see the effect that would have on voting up and down the big old pole of American government.
It would be like that thing with the two girls and the one cup, except the girls are different factions of the GOP, and the cup is Romney’s campaign.
Shorter – People will watch in horror, but they won’t – vote – for it. What are they? Freaks?
g
@Sally Rakowski: You’re a dimbulb. Why would an author be given copies of promo materials that his agent uses to shop him to publishers? Doesn’t happen that way.
Brachiator
@Sally Rakowski:
Are you a professional idiot, or just an amateur with high standing?
handy
@Sally Rakowski:
Congratulations DougJ, you got a bona fide birther on your very own thread. Assuming this isn’t you, of course.
Svensker
@Sally Rakowski:
You have no idea how book publishing and publicity work, do you?
Believe me, it’s more than likely that the author never sees the lameass publicity crap that is churned out.
redshirt
I too will tell Sally how dumb she is! Learn from me!
Todd
Feature, not bug. That is what projection does.
Snowwy
@Sally Rakowski:
And I think you need to prove that it’s meaningful. Good fucking luck with that, racist.
Quarks
If Arizona ends up proving that Obama really IS a Time Lord who used his secret powers to manufacture all that evidence that he was really born in Hawai’i, and this announcement allows the Daleks to track him down, you’re all going to be very, very sorry for making fun of this very nice Secretary of State who is only trying to defend us from robot aliens.
jayboat
@Sally Rakowski:
Oh, goody- a troll. Doesn’t look to be very competent, tho.
M. Bouffant
@Svensker: Indeed.
A friend had a novel published by a big-name East Coast publisher; he asked them to send me a copy, which they did along w/ their promotional stuff. Friend was at the pad one day, I mentioned they’d sent the book, & he was all over the promo material because he had never seen it before.
M. Bouffant
Doesn’t this whole “Not on the ballot” thing seem like a straight-up reaction to the possibility that Arizona might be in Electoral College play?
J R
I think the best shot is for HI to deny that the AZ Sec of State is a human, and to refuse to reply to a question from an Alien from another world.
The folks who hate on Obama for being a Muslim AND for having a hater for a preacher at the same time are weak-minded too. They can only hold two facts in their minds if neither of them is true.
And farmers used to plow with steagosaurouses [sic on purpose] also too.
You knoe in yur hart they did too!
Clime Acts
@Snowwy:
“Good fucking luck with that, racist.”
HAHAHAHAHA…ah, the old standby, trite BJ insult when nothing else will quite do.
You realize when you throw the epithet around so casually you rob it of its power, don’t you?
Also, your nym is awfully Snowwy white…RACIST!
g
@M. Bouffant:
True indeed. My spouse has a book out with a highly respected Academic publisher. for the second edition, they randomly swapped out some photos with some stock photos totally unrelated to the text, without consulting him.
priscianusjr
” Said Bennett: “I’m not a birther. I believe the president was born in Hawaii—or at least I hope he was. But I’m not at all sure that Hawaii really is a state. Therefore I am launching an investigation today to uncover the truth — (chord of doom)– “Hawaii — state, territory, or kingdom?”
Sally Rakowski
@M. Bouffant:
Except your friend’s bio wasn’t updated, corrected and republished multiple times and still remained. I’m guessing if it had, your friend would’ve called to complain and/or correct it.
Also, too, I’m wondering if your friend’s publishing agent had a policy whereby all bios are required to be submitted by the author, like Obama’s publisher’s was.
shortstop
Clime Acts had to take another nym to publicly poop out his birtherism? Damn, there IS something he’s embarrassed about.
g
@Sally Rakowski: Sally, you are an ignorant loon who has no idea how the business works.
You are talking about a piece of marketing ephemera, not an actual book. The pamphlet you are speaking about was printed 4 years before Obama’s book was published. The agent was shopping the book contract, not the book.
Stop embarrassing yourself.
Sally Rakowski
@shortstop:
No one here has even close to a plausible explanation as to how this publisher came up with Kenya as his birthplace without Obama’s awareness at any point aside from “innocent mistake”.
Easier to just say ‘Birther’. Or better yet, “Racist!”.
And that’s not lazy.
Obama writes all his own stuff with no aid from anyone else. His bio with his publisher, yeah, he leaves that all to someone else. Sounds likely. And no one, not one person, calls or writes him to let him know that it’s grossly in error.
This happens all the time.
{ laughs }
Sally Rakowski
@g:
Why was it changed two months after he decided to run for President, g?
Marketing ephemera suddenly became less ephemeral?
Makes no sense. Hardly plausible, anyway, and I’ll accept what you’re saying, but it doesn’t add up.
g
@Sally Rakowski: Let’s put it really simple so Sally can understand.
The agent wasn’t a publishing agent selling a printed book. The agent was a literary agent – a person representing an author who wants to be awarded a book contract. got it? the agent wasn’t selling a published book, the agent was selling a prospective, unpublished AUTHOR with a book idea to publishers.
Agents do not involve authors directly in their marketing efforts – especially new unpublished authors, being represented for the first time. They do not let authors proof-read their marketing materials.
The print piece that Breitbart is touting is a print piece of marketing. It is not a book. It was printed in 1991. It was not an “official bio”. It was a piece of fluff designed to catch the interest of a prospective publisher to award the author a contract for a book that hadn’t been written yet.
It was no more an official “bio” than an actor’s bio in a theatre program is. And typically, even if an actor (or author) is asked to submit a biographical paragraph for such a print piece, the editor ends up rewriting it so it can fit the space allowed. In fact, several editors rewrite these for different print runs.
The subject of a print-piece biographical description in a piece of marketing has no control over the final print job – and especially if he’s a newly signed unpublished author.
Snowwy
Clime Acts, nothing you have to say interests me, except insofar as I know I’m on the right track whenever you deride it.
Oh btw, I’m black. You might’ve wondered where the nick came from before you opened your mouth. Thanks for playing.
phil
Sally,
Stop embarrassing yourself. It’s just pitiful to read your lame attempts to… well, I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to do.
Sally Rakowski
@g:
Again, g, it was changed in 2007 because why?
Who were they marketing this piece of ephemera to then?
mai naem
@Sally Rakowski: First I cannot believe I am replying to a troll/birther. Hey dumbfcuk, why don’t you look up the history and geography of Kenya before you sit there and say that he was born in Kenya? Then look up when he was born and the situation between his parents(i.e. school semesters etc.) If you actually looked it up you would know that Obama was born during Kenya’s fight for independence from Britain. Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya and back then that was like saying Missoula is the second largest city is Montana. Nobody, but nobody unless they were teatard kooky krazy would let their seven month pregnant daughter go to Kenya around that time. And trust me, there would be a ton of witnesses to any mixed race baby born there more so from that period. I lived there and I never ever saw a mixed race couple much less a mixed race child. I realize you want Obama to be uneligible to stand for election but this is not the way to do it. It just makes you look dumb.
Snowwy
Hey Sally:
Kindly refer to this link to understand why no one agrees with you:
Personal Incredulity
g
@Sally Rakowski:
why was what changed? Are you confusing the pamphlet with the actual book?
The Breitbart pamphlet was printed in 1991. It’s like printing a flyer for a band, or a program for a play.
Would you be doubting Bruce Springsteen’s identity if you found a mimeographed flyer for a gig his band did in 1991, with his name spelled “Springstein.”
Sally Rakowski
@mai naem:
I don’t think he was born in Kenya, mai.
I’m saying he’s looking a lot like Elizabeth Warren checking off boxes when it’s to his advantage to do so. When it’s not to his advantage, it suddenly gets erased.
I’m curious why you think that’s either birtherism or racism when you question politicians’ honesty all the time here…. at least with those you’re not ideologically aligned with.
Have a reason for that, by chance?
g
What “gets erased” Sally?
Sally Rakowski
@Snowwy:
Do you shout ‘racist’ without an explanation often?
Bubblegum Tate
@Sally Rakowski:
The hand, it has been tipped. Decent work, though. Not the best I’ve ever seen, but not the worst, either.
Bubblegum Tate
@g:
But then that makes Obama a liar, you see:
Hard to argue with that logic. Seriously, it’s hard to argue with it because how are you supposed to explain reality to a person that forwards it?
g
Seriously, Sally, are you trying to assert that the literary agent continued distributing the same pamphlet year after year between 1991 and 2007, with the same biographical sketch written on it?
Tonal Crow
@M. Bouffant:
Sure as shootin’, and you can take that to any bank east, west, north, aaaaaaaand south of the Pecos.
grandpa john
@Sally Rakowski: Actually sally we don’t give a shit about it.we don’t need an explanation of stupid irrelevant shit brought up by idiot winger. all we need to know is that a certified birth certificate from one state is a legal document that has to be honored by other states whereas the document you refer to is not certified by another state in any way as legally binding, and therefore is is not a legal document and has no legal standing, now that really doesn’t require a great deal of intelligence to understand does it?
g
Actually, this 2008 article gives some of the context of how Obama’s literary career went:
Article
I would imagine that he was a lot more concerned about writing the book than worrying about in-house PR material.
Clime Acts
@Sally Rakowski:
Yes, yes it does.
Clime Acts
@Snowwy:
And I’m Martian. I have no idea who or what you are. It’s the intertrons.
pseudonymous in nc
A friend of mine is an author: she recently found out that the blurb on the US editions of her books cites reviews from newspapers from her country of origin, except it identifies those newspapers as being from another country entirely, even though the titles of those newspapers feature the adjective associated with the correct country — a bit like having a review attributed to “The Arizona Republic (New Mexico)”. Which is somewhat annoying for her.
But, y’know, Silly Sally proves my point that no document is enough to refute a pathological birfer.
Djur
I am really, really interested to find out what Sally thinks Obama whitewashed in 2007, considering that at that point Dreams From My Father had been out for 12 years, and that book correctly describes Obama’s birthplace.
The book mentioned in the 1991 blurb never even came out. Why would Obama be micromanaging promotional material at that point? It’s entirely possible that neither Barack nor anyone who knew him well ever read that blurb.
Also, there’s plenty of ways the false birthplace could have ended up in the blurb. His father was Kenyan. Any number of miscommunications or assumptions could have arisen from that.
Djur
@Clime Acts: Aww, troll love. <3
Patricia Kayden
Let the Righties continue with this birtherism nonsense. Then they have the nerve to wonder why they can’t attract young people and minorities to their party.
El Cid
I’m sure that a Republican official keeping the Democratic candidate for President off the ballot of a state would be seen as an entirely non-partisan, cautious, far-sighted act.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@c u n d gulag: Better yet, forced DNA testing (in the most painfully invasive procedure possible) to verify that they are even human.
mclaren
That train has sailed, eh? Perhaps the birther octopus has finally sung its swan song. Or possibly that’s the way the birther’s ball crumbles…
Mnemosyne
@Sally Rakowski:
Interestingly, this includes you.
Mnemosyne
Sally reminds me of the one and only jury case I’ve ever been on, where a graduate student had accidentally brought a knife into a courthouse. The prosecution’s entire case rested on the prosecutor’s belief that women always know the entire contents of their purses at all times, so the student must have brought it in on purpose. He found it implausible that a woman could forget that there was a sheathed knife in the bottom of her large purse.
Needless to say, it took the jury longer to fill out the paperwork finding the student innocent than it did to get to the actual verdict.
Clime Acts
Why do bots give so much time and angry energy to refuting birther accusations they say are irrelevant, stupid, and beneath consideration?
Just read thru this thread.